Asda have scrapped their in-store refill trial, a serious set-back to the widespread adoption of refills in supermarkets. Having tested and refined it for four years, it’s not like they didn’t try. Perhaps its a case of people not actually wanting the thing they say they want.
For those keeping an eye on cultivated meat, here’s an interesting first step in the UK: it’s just been given the legal go-ahead for use in pet food.
Analysis of the UK election results has shown that there are vanishingly few votes to be won by ditching climate change policy, and that Rishi Sunak’s downgrading of the issue was seen as a failure.
One of the founders of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, was among five protestors given five year prison sentences this week, the longest sentences ever given for peaceful protest.
Having just read Peter Wohlleben’s book (see below) that advocates natural regeneration of forests, it’s great to hear that Forestry England is planning just that in four sites designated for rewilding.
This week’s articles
On still blogging in 2026
I realised recently that I’ve been writing a blog for over 20 years now. Those two decades have not softened my reflexive dislike of the word blog, by the way. I mentally hesitate before ever using it. I will suck it up and use it here, because at the beginning of a new year, I…
Some favourite posts from 2025
It’s time to wrap things up for the season, and I will do so with a selection of highlights. Having looked back over this year’s articles, here are some that I’m pleased with. The landscaper of the climate age – The Chinese architect and landscaper Kongjian Yu died in a plane crash this year, and…
What we learned this week
Featuring China’s climate targets, a marine treaty, a bonus book review, and solar panels from Aldi.
The Earthbound Report 
The refill idea is a fallacy because of the expectation on space at home and organisation and time that consumers need to have to make use of it. Hope they think again about something more practical like standardising containers so they can just be dropped at the shop and a replacement picked up. Why can’t the logistics chain that brings the full containers to be sold take back the empty ones to be washed and re used? No one has time for refills as a regular part of their week beyond the initial novelty value.
Refillable containers for soap and shampoo have been working well with a limited set of people here in my hometown of Richmond, VA. A healthfood chain has offered them for Dr. Bronner’s concentrates for at least 20 years, and there are plenty of us who do this. I’d like to see marketers educate consumers about the value of small steps that would make a great deal of difference if adopted by all of us.
There are places where it has worked well, and standardised, unbranded containers are an important part of that. I don’t want to take 10 different containers to the supermarket to refill with specific things. And it works best when at cornershops, somewhere you can walk down the street and get what you need when you need it, rather than carting a bunch of containers with you on your ‘big shop’. Perhaps that makes the whole refill business incompatible with Britain’s car-based supermarket culture.
HI Jeremy, after reading two books you recommended on this site, I must say that Climate Change is Racist is my favorite. I liked the other, which will remain nameless. It was interesting. But yours is brilliantly focused and convincing. Will be trying to order it from you. Booksellers here in the U.S.A. had issues with distributors. Please let me know if there’s anything they should know, or if the conclusion one should draw is that it’s better to order directly from Earthbound Books.
I could not order it from your web page. Am still hoping to order enough copies to give away. Is this still possible? Thank you in advance.
Sorry it’s been hard to get hold of – there was a US distributor, but maybe that lapses after a couple of years, I don’t know. It is still on Amazon, if you can shop with the evil empire for a good cause!
Am very glad if it’s available anywhere – thank you!!! And if I were a US book distributor, which lately I’ve wondered about becoming, I like to think I’d do a better job of pro-actively keeping great authors up-to-date and in touch with hungry readers!!! Thanks for the info!!!